Help cloning the laptop hard drive

[eli2k]

I'm trying to install a new hard drive into my laptop, so I picked up a new WD hard drive the other day. There are two partitions in my laptop drive (recovery, and the system); it's a Dell laptop, 600m. I want to keep the two partitions intact, and then let the system partition expand to fill most of the space in the new hard drive. I'm not sure how to do this, though. I have a USB adapter for one of the 2.5" drives. Can I boot a software CD, and then clone over a USB, or can I create an image of the laptop hard drive to something, and then write that image? It's easier when the drives are all connected to the motherboard, but not sure what to do here.

Thanks,
- Eli

 

[bruceb]

You can Clone the old drive to the new one either with Norton Ghost or Acronis TruImage ... Acronis does offer a trial period of use for the program. Your clone will still work after the trial expires. When you download Acronis, install it on the old drive and then run it to create a Bootable CD .. You would want to run the clone operation off of the bootable cd. Note that most hard drive makers offer the same type of utility for free download, but a lot of times the 2 drives must be of the same make as the provider of the utility .. Such as WD program with WD drives or a Segate program with Seagate drives, etc.

 

[eli2k]

Thanks, bruceb. Will this work over USB interface, and can you explain how the two partitions will be copied? I'm going from 40gb to 120gb hard drive, so will that empty space be unallocated, and I can just allocate it with some partition software after it has been cloned?

 

[pcgeek11]

Originally posted by: eli2k
I'm trying to install a new hard drive into my laptop, so I picked up a new WD hard drive the other day. There are two partitions in my laptop drive (recovery, and the system); it's a Dell laptop, 600m. I want to keep the two partitions intact, and then let the system partition expand to fill most of the space in the new hard drive. I'm not sure how to do this, though. I have a USB adapter for one of the 2.5" drives. Can I boot a software CD, and then clone over a USB, or can I create an image of the laptop hard drive to something, and then write that image? It's easier when the drives are all connected to the motherboard, but not sure what to do here.

Thanks,
- Eli

After you change the system partition size the recovery partition will no longer work in most cases. Dell Recovery partitions I know will no longer work after the partition table is changed for a fact. Make sure you want to do this before you commit.

Now the good news. You can create the same functionality " Press F11 to boot into an Acronis recovery partition" This is called the Acronis Secure Zone.

Here is a Wiki that explains it. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Acronis_Secure_Zone

Acronis explaination: http://www.acronis.com/resourc.../2005/secure-zone.html


pcgeek11

 

[bruceb]

I can't say about the recovery partition, so the info posted above is likely correct. And most cloning software will work over USB as long as you have a USB to IDE or SATA (as needed) adapter. I suggest, if you have not done so already, is Burn the Recovery CDs before you start. Your computer manual should have instructions on how to do this.

 

[eli2k]

I see. Okay, I guess can try this - image just the system partition to the new hard drive, and I'll keep the old hard drive around intact, and in the worst case scenario, I can put the old hard drive back, run restore, and then reimage the restored system partition to a new hard drive.

 

[Laputa]

Or you can do a sector clone with Ghost and then create a new partition with the remainding free space on the new drive after you got everything working.

 

[eli2k]

Originally posted by: Laputa
Or you can do a sector clone with Ghost and then create a new partition with the remainding free space on the new drive after you got everything working.

Thanks; I'll give that a try. I can just expand the system partition after it copies over everything to take up all the free space, correct? On second thought, that wouldn't work, because the recovery partition will not work.

If I clone just the system partition with Acronis, what happens to the boot record? Is there some special step I have to do?

 

[pcgeek11]

Acronis also copies the boot record MBR.

 

[heymrdj]

Originally posted by: pcgeek11
Acronis also copies the boot record MBR.

This.

I've used it at least 200 times, and it has never once caused a recovery partition on a Dell, HP, or a Compaq to fail to work. It works just as it did on the factory hard drive.

 

[corkyg]

All excellent points. I clone my laptop drive almost weekly. The primary tool is Acronis TrueImage 2009 (ver.12). I use that to prepare bootable rescue media. My first rule has always been never to clone drives from within Windows.

Here is one of the methods I currently use:

Clone

With an external drive connected via eSATA to my laptop, I boot the system using the Acronis Rescue Media. Then I select the Cloning Utility, and proceed to do a manual operation from laptop to external drive.

When that is completed (takes about 10 minutes for a 320 GB drive) I change HDDs in the laptop and put in the "reserve" drive (same size, 320 GB). I then repeat the process, but, this time I clone from the external eSATA drive to the laptop. When done, I disconnect the eSATA drive and boot the laptop to the newly cloned drive.

I have never had a failure using this method.

I can also remove the laptop optical drive and replace it with a 320 HDD in the Ultrabay adapter. But, then I need to use flash media containing the rescue bootable files.

I have used the USB connection, but that takes just about an hour compared to eSATA's 10 minutes.

All my desktops contain duplicate drives, and I clone them whenever major software changes are completed.

The laptop clonings were part of my installation of Vista SP2 this weekend.